


crushes and other things girls do

by revoleotion



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Brendol Hux's A+ Parenting, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Misunderstandings, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-09
Updated: 2020-06-09
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:48:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24631078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/revoleotion/pseuds/revoleotion
Summary: “Do you have a crush on him?” Peavey asked after something that felt like an eternity.Phasma stared at him.“How many women have you spoken to in your life?”“Since the divorce? Not many. But that’s not my point.”-in which Phasma decides to act like a straight woman for a good cause.
Relationships: Armitage Hux & Phasma
Comments: 4
Kudos: 24





	crushes and other things girls do

**Author's Note:**

> "General Hux" in this means Brendol, as much as I hate to say this. Don't worry, we all know he will have a fitting end.

The bridge wasn’t overly crowded which gave her the opportunity to look around. The General was in his own quarters and had ordered her to stay on the bridge. It hadn’t taken her long to understand what she was supposed to do - or _who_ she was supposed to watch. 

Armitage Hux wasn’t doing much yet, and to be fair Phasma wasn’t sure what Brendol Hux wanted to hear from her. 

Footsteps approached her from the right. Phasma turned around, not expecting any threat but wanting to be prepared anyway. The man stopped a few centimeters next to her and gave her a firm nod. 

Edrison Peavey. Like many First Order officers, she felt like someone had taken a perfectly normal first name and added a letter to make it unrecognizable. 

“Good day, Sir,” she said and hoped she didn’t stretch any letters or ruined the emphasis. Sometimes words would appear inside her head but didn’t sound the way they looked like. If she modeled her voice the right way, she almost sounded like General Hux. 

“Good day,” Peavey replied. There was nothing personal in his smile, it was simply there to cover up a serious expression in his eyes. 

“How can I help?” Phasma asked. 

He raised an eyebrow. For a few seconds, he was silent, then his head turned towards the man she had been watching the entire afternoon. Something about his eyes on Armitage made Phasma uncomfortable. Of course she had no proof of Peavey doing anything. She was sure that she’d never find any proof of the General doing anything either. She only had Armitage Hux’ eyes when his father wasn’t looking. A strange mixture of fear and anger, deep enough leave an imprint on his soul forever. 

“Do you have a crush on him?” Peavey asked after something that felt like an eternity.

Phasma stared at him.

“How many women have you spoken to in your life?”

“Since the divorce? Not many. But that’s not my point.”

There was a pause. His face had many emotions on it but she couldn't understand all of them. What she could tell was that he wanted to continue. He had a plan, something she had to understand without him telling her word by word. 

“The General has been worried that his son is... You know,” Peavey continued. 

She did not know but she nodded anyway. The words left his mouth quickly and hectically, like he wanted them to disappear right after she processed them. Phasma did not want them to linger for longer than they had to. 

“He has never showed interest in women. So we'd be very relieved if a woman told us she might love him.”

Oh.

_Oh._

Phasma almost smiled, then realized that he couldn't see any expression she made. 

“In that case,” she said and didn't finish. 

“I’m glad we agree,” Peavey said. 

She took her time to study his face. She had expected him to be like the others. Like the General. 

“So am I,” she said. “Would you excuse me for a moment?”

He nodded and gave her the vague smile again. With an unusual feeling growing in her chest, Phasma walked down the bridge until she stopped in front of Armitage. 

“Can I help you?” he asked before she could even think of what to say to him. During daylight, he always looked flawless, his pale skin smooth and his eyes cold. The exhaustion went deeper, and Phasma didn’t always dare to look that deep. 

“Actually, you can,” Phasma told him. “Please tell your father that I asked you out.”

Armitage’s face shifted, fear fully visible for a second. He inhaled and let the air out with a shaky laugh. 

“Excuse me?”

“I just asked you out.”

“Are you high, Phasma?”

He didn’t say it in a cruel way. Especially not her name. If anything, he pronounced it a little different than she was used to, and she liked that. 

“Besides,” the boy added and attempted to stand up a little straighter. He winced, obviously in pain, but didn’t allow her to help him. Phasma dropped her useless hand again and waited for him to continue. 

“Why don’t you tell him yourself?” he asked after a small pause. His voice had turned raspy, like he couldn’t put any effort into speaking anymore. 

“Because I think it would be more effective if you told him that a woman asked you out, Armitage.”

He blinked a few times. 

“It’s _Armitage_ ,” he then said. 

“That’s what I said.”

“No, you make it sound like an A in the end.”

“I was under the impression that this is how you spell that name,” Phasma replied and prayed for her voice to support those words. It worked. No shaking, no mispronunciation. 

“But that’s not how you say it,” Armitage hissed. His shoulders dropped even further until he almost lost every bit of his usually very straight posture. 

It filled her with anxiety. She should’ve known that things had to be bad when Peavey interfered.

“How long does your shift go?” she asked. 

“You can’t be serious.”

She offered him a smile he couldn’t see through the helmet. Whatever Armitage Hux made out of her silence, he sighed quietly and whispered, “Ten minutes.”

“Perfect timing, then. I will pick you up in half an hour, that gives you plenty of times to tell the General.”

Much like her mask, Armitage’s face didn’t give away many emotions. He nodded, made a small step back and avoided looking into her direction. She counted this as a “dismissed”. 

Not sure what she was supposed to do with the last thirty minutes of her freedom, she walked back to Peavey and stopped next to him. 

“Thank you,” she said, not facing him. 

There was no answer but she could feel his eyes on her and some of the tension leave his body. She wasn’t relieved, not yet. Not until this date was over and the rumors were spreading just the perfect amount. 

Armitage waited in front of the quarters when she joined him. During the few times Phasma has seen the General’s quarters, he had always kept Armitage’s room a secret. She “didn’t need to know”. Armitage didn’t seem like he wanted to show it to her today either. 

“So, where are we going?” he asked. “To your room?”

Phasma almost didn’t catch it, it was too quick and too small. But when she noticed it, it grew larger and almost caused her to choke on it. He expected her to take advantage of him. It was the way he stood, the way he didn’t look her in the eyes. 

“Yes- no. I mean, yes to my room. But no.” 

Phasma squeezed her eyes shut and silently cursed the way her voice butchered the words. They were all wrong. 

“No?” he asked. 

She shook her head. 

“I don’t understand,” Armitage said. 

Phasma wanted to scream but she just shook her head again. 

“It’s just a date,” she said helplessly. “I don’t know how this works either.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t have asked then,” Armitage hissed. 

_Fair enough,_ she thought. 

“You can go back to your room if you want. I’m not forcing you to stay here.”

“No.” He stared at her, eyes wide open. “I already told him, I can’t--”

“Then we’re going to my room.”

She didn’t mean to copy even the dominant aspect of Brendol Hux’ voice but it worked on Armitage. He followed her without saying anything else. 

Phasma stopped at her door, typed in the security code and stepped aside to let him enter. Armitage looked up to her, just for a moment, then he walked inside. The door slid shut behind Phasma. Her fingers went up to her helmet without thinking but lingered for a few more seconds. She trusted him. She had to show him that he could still trust hers. 

“Don’t,” Armitage said before she could remove the helmet. “Don’t take it off.”

She lowered her hands again. The silence was almost too heavy to move in it.

“You can sit down if you like,” she said after a while. “We have to plan this, obviously.”

“Plan what?” Armitage asked. The fact that he sat down told her more about his pain-level than his words would ever do. 

“The whole dating thing, of course,” Phasma said and finally removed the helmet. “Because I hope you didn’t think I am into you, Armitage.”

There it was. Flawless. The way he said it. No A-sound. A tiny “idge” in the end - that didn’t make any sense at all.

Armitage offered her a careful smile, the most honest one yet. He relaxed, leaned back until his head hit the mattress. 

“Of course not, Phasma,” he told her ceiling. 


End file.
